Aircraft Carrying 8 Crashes in Pakistan

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, February 23, 2003

A small chartered plane carrying Afghanistan's industries minister, a Chinese mining executive and six others crashed Monday soon after takeoff in southern Karachi, a civil aviation official said.

There was no immediate word about survivors aboard the Cessna 402, which was en route from Karachi to Jazak near the Iranian border in southwestern Baluchistan. It was carrying mining officials to an exploration site.

On the plane were Afghan Industries Minister Juma Mohammed Mohammedi, three other Afghan officials, a representative of Pakistan's foreign ministry and two crew members, said Pervez George, of the civil aviation authority that governs air traffic in Pakistan.

The eighth person on board was Sunching Fheng, chief executive officer of the Metallurgical Company of China, George said.

The plane lost contact with the Karachi Airport control tower 29 minutes after takeoff and crashed 28 miles outside the city.

It was owned by Pakistan's largest private welfare organization, Edhi Trust, and had left Karachi International Airport at about 8 a.m. local time (10 p.m. EST Sunday).

The aircraft had been chartered by Star Aviation to take a group of officials belonging to Metallurgical Company of China to an excavation site in Sainak in southwestern Baluchistan, near Jazak, which is roughly 480 miles northwest of Karachi.

Star Aviation had refused to identify the nationalities of the passengers.

The plane was piloted by Col. Sajjad of Edhi Trust, said Abdul Sattar Edhi, head of the trust.